The status quo of fire evacuation drills in nursery schools
Najmanová, Hana LU ; Novák, Petr and Ronchi, Enrico LU
(2025)
In Safety Science
191.
- Abstract
Fire drills are a commonly-used training method for improving how people act in emergency situations. This article deals with fire drills in early childhood education facilities and analyses data gathered from an online survey of 1 151 Czech nursery schools (23.5% of nursery schools invited to participate, 21.5% of all officially registered nursery schools in Czechia). It provides recommendations for improving the effectiveness of fire drills in nursery schools. Results suggest that regular (typically annual) fire drills are common training practices at these schools, but more frequent fire drills led to significantly fewer issues during evacuation. The most frequent evacuation issue encountered during fire drills, according to our... (More)
Fire drills are a commonly-used training method for improving how people act in emergency situations. This article deals with fire drills in early childhood education facilities and analyses data gathered from an online survey of 1 151 Czech nursery schools (23.5% of nursery schools invited to participate, 21.5% of all officially registered nursery schools in Czechia). It provides recommendations for improving the effectiveness of fire drills in nursery schools. Results suggest that regular (typically annual) fire drills are common training practices at these schools, but more frequent fire drills led to significantly fewer issues during evacuation. The most frequent evacuation issue encountered during fire drills, according to our data, was slow movement. Many children needed assistance, notably on stairs; nursery schools located only on the ground floor reported fewer issues during evacuation than other schools. The purpose, design, and implementation of fire drills with our study confirming results from prior studies must be properly integrated into complex and systematic fire safety education programs that specifically reflect the characteristics, needs, and possible limitations of preschool children.
(Less)
- author
- Najmanová, Hana
LU
; Novák, Petr
and Ronchi, Enrico
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Evacuation, Fire drill, Fire safety, Human behavior, Preschool children, Survey
- in
- Safety Science
- volume
- 191
- article number
- 106915
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105008134616
- ISSN
- 0925-7535
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106915
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- da3fad60-95c9-487f-94aa-0bb8a147a95b
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-27 14:40:08
- date last changed
- 2025-10-27 14:41:18
@article{da3fad60-95c9-487f-94aa-0bb8a147a95b,
abstract = {{<p>Fire drills are a commonly-used training method for improving how people act in emergency situations. This article deals with fire drills in early childhood education facilities and analyses data gathered from an online survey of 1 151 Czech nursery schools (23.5% of nursery schools invited to participate, 21.5% of all officially registered nursery schools in Czechia). It provides recommendations for improving the effectiveness of fire drills in nursery schools. Results suggest that regular (typically annual) fire drills are common training practices at these schools, but more frequent fire drills led to significantly fewer issues during evacuation. The most frequent evacuation issue encountered during fire drills, according to our data, was slow movement. Many children needed assistance, notably on stairs; nursery schools located only on the ground floor reported fewer issues during evacuation than other schools. The purpose, design, and implementation of fire drills with our study confirming results from prior studies must be properly integrated into complex and systematic fire safety education programs that specifically reflect the characteristics, needs, and possible limitations of preschool children.</p>}},
author = {{Najmanová, Hana and Novák, Petr and Ronchi, Enrico}},
issn = {{0925-7535}},
keywords = {{Evacuation; Fire drill; Fire safety; Human behavior; Preschool children; Survey}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Safety Science}},
title = {{The status quo of fire evacuation drills in nursery schools}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106915}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106915}},
volume = {{191}},
year = {{2025}},
}